MINTH NORTH AMERICA: Using Six Sigma to Reduce Scrap and Increase Savings
The Center offers a state-of-the-art learning experience that directly correlates with real life manufacturing situations. It instills the confidence to go out and not only identify but lead meaningful improvement projects that will benefit your company for years to come.
-- Alex Lutz, Quality Manager
Established in 1992 as a small factory in China, MINTH has since expanded to become a leading supplier in the design, manufacturing and sale of body structural parts, trims and decorative parts of passenger vehicles. After all branch companies were organized to become the MINTH Group in 1997, the company grew to establish production facilities world-wide, from Thailand to the U.S. to Mexico. MINTH North America (www.minthamericas.com) is headquartered in Wixom, Mich., where 95 employees provide services such as extrusion, roll-forming, bending, stamping and injection to world-renowned automakers.
Challenge
As part of their succession planning, MINTH North America identified employees that would benefit from enhancing their skills in Six Sigma to support their personal development for future promotions. Among those identified were a Manufacturing Engineer and Quality Manager, who were selected to complete Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB) training and take the lead on a SSBB project to drive continuous improvement efforts in the facility.
Solution
MINTH North America’s Manufacturing Engineer and Quality Manager both completed the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center’s 10-day interactive SSBB training to gain the tools and knowledge needed to successfully complete a Six Sigma project. The focus of their SSBB project was on reducing scrap.
Stainless steel defects, or “dings,” caused by debris accounted for 9.5% of the overall annual scrap cost, the highest scrap cost contributor. These dings cost the company approximately $60,000 each year and contributed to accumulated downtime of 261 hours, which translated to potential sales of $69,000.
The goal of their SSBB project was to reduce the amount of ding defects by at least 50%. Using a fishbone diagram to determine potential causes, the project team then implemented additional steps into their process to remove debris from the area using air. As a result of these changes, the team was able to reduce the ding scrap rate from 14.8% to 6.5%, reaching a 57% reduction.
Results
- Investment in equipment upgrades to clean and tool surface repeatedly: $700
- Reduced ding scrap rate by 57%, from 14.8% to 6.5%, exceeding goal of 50% reduction
- Scrap cost reduction of $25,700 annually
- Estimated scrap avoidance of $300,000 annually
- Increased sales opportunity of $24,600 annually
- Investment of $14,700 in training